Romanticizing your life is one of your best ways to happiness. It’s so easy to look around and find things to complain about, especially while taking care of your home.

If your home is anything like mine there’s a never ending pile of laundry, dishes in the sink, and another meal to be made. Groceries to buy , errands to run. Rinse and repeat.

But it doesn’t have to be like this, but if you are like the many people who seem to tune into the negative pretty easily (myself includes at times) it takes mindfulness to change this.

Great news, it is not as hard as it sounds. Even better news…it is free.

I found a few simple steps made this possible.  This is not about beating yourself up for being ungrateful.  It is about noticing and shifting. Eventually it will become habit.

The first step is letting no thought go unnoticed.  Notice what you celebrate. Notice what you complain about. Notice what brings you good feelings and Notice what doesn’t.  Try to do this without judgement. This is solely for the purpose of collecting information.

You can write it down or keep a mental note. Personally I am very visual so for me this exercise works best when written down.

For the things that you celebrate and for things that bring you good feelings, what is it about them that cause this reaction for you.  Write it down.

For the things you complain about and that cause you to have bad feelings we want to examine this.

What causes the bad feeling? Is it the act or object itself? A feeling tied to it?

Notice without judgement…again this is just to collect information.

For things with huge emotional ties or traumas… I am not properly equipped to handle this and it would be best to work with someone who has the skills to unpack it with you.

However for day to day things, I have spent many years learning to intentionally flip the script and find joy….or at the very least just dislike less…that is ok sometimes to.

This will take time and practice. It might feel very unnatural at first. Even phoney. That is ok. It’s part of the process in my experience. 

Please don’t think you need to go from I hate this to I love this. Sometimes the best next step is finding a more neutral place to land.

One thing that helps me when I don’t like something but I know I need to do it is trying a quick reframe. It is too easy to simply say I hate this task..even if you do it it’s still very negative. A more neutral place to be is for example I do not enjoy grocery shopping but I am doing it because I need to and I can be proud of myself for that. You could say something like I really don’t like to grocery shop but I still did it and showed up for my family.

This is a huge step because while you still don’t like the task, you now say something positive which helps your mindset start to shift.

Sticking with the grocery shopping theme ( I have 5 children so grocery shopping is often on my mind) you can start to them make it a more enjoyable experience. 

If this is still hard get curious why. Once you understand what is hard about something you can tackle the why.

If you want to you can stick with neutral, but if you want to Romanticize your life, I strongly suggest that you start to move into positives.

Practice finding everything you can be grateful for.

Here are some things I say for myself as well as things I intentionally notice as I walk through the store.

Look at this abundance of beautiful foods to choose from.. what a blessing it is to have so many options.

My children love strawberries and they look beautiful today! I cannot wait to surprise them with them tomorrow at breakfast.

The seasonal isle smells like pumpkin spice, pumpkin season is my favorite.

I also use grocery shopping as a way to remind my husband how grateful I am that he provides for our family. A simple thank you for working hard to provide for us or thank you for keeping everyone’s bellies full goes a long way.

It isn’t always easy, but the more you do it the more it comes naturally. You will see the shift from negative speech to positive speech as you work the muscle.

My quick tip is this,  if you are ever really struggling to do this whether it be at the beginning of making the shift or if you have been doing it for awhile and are having a bad day, there is still a way to do it without stretching your capacity too far… just simply replace I have to with I get to.

And if despite all efforts you fail one day you can try again the next.

There are so many benefits to being grateful. I highly recommend reading about all the benefits of gratitude.  It is such a powerful tool.

Once you get good at gratitude this is where the fun really starts.  Once you have gotten gratitude down you are really ready to romanticize your life. 

You trained your brain to see things differently making it come much more naturally.

This makes you able to see things in a more joyful way. To be more mindful of the abundance your life has to offer.

You don’t need to spend a penny extra to do this which is the best part.

You just simply need to notice. Notice the beauty, make the simple joys of life magic. To simply take a few extra moments to add some sparkle whether it be using your pretty glasses for your water or your favorite mug for coffee. Don’t wait to use the “good stuff” for special occasions…because the truth is every moment you are breathing has the opportunity to be a special moment as long as you choose to see it that way.

Light the candle, put your windows down and enjoy the breeze,  sing at the top of your lungs to your favorite song. Put some cozy pajamas on at bedtime.

Life is beautiful you just need to notice.

You will still have days that aren’t the best from time to time. However having a heart and mind that can find and feel joy will make you better equipped to handle the storms that come your way.  The storms in life remind us to appreciate the sunshine.

I’ll leave you with this. The fact that you exist is incredible.  It is an incredible miracle. I am a little bit of a science fanatic at heart so here’s an article from Science Alert that is mind blowing.

https://www.sciencealert.com/what-is-the-likelihood-mind-blowing.

If you don’t feel like reading it here is my biggest take away from it :

“Things get even deeper, with the probability of your mother’s egg and your father’s sperm having all the right DNA to make you you – and not a slightly different person, like your sibling – being 1 in 400,000,000,000,000,000.”

Your life is worth romanticizing because you are a miracle.